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29 - The Egyptian Campaign and the Middle East

from Part V - Other Spheres of War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 December 2022

Bruno Colson
Affiliation:
Université de Namur, Belgium
Alexander Mikaberidze
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University, Shreveport
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Summary

Napoleon Bonaparte’s 1798 invasion of Egypt represented the first modern attempt to incorporate an Islamic society into the European fold. Although the expedition was a military fiasco, it left a lasting legacy in the region. The invasion constituted the formative moment for the discourse of Orientalism, when all of its ideological components converged and a full arsenal of instruments of Western domination was employed to protect it. The occupation itself did little to modernize Egyptian society, because the revolutionary principles that the French tried to introduce were too radical and foreign, and met determined local resistance. But Napoleon created a political vacuum in Egypt that was soon filled by Kavalali Mehmet Ali Pasha, who, within a decade of the French departure, began laying the foundation for the reformed and modernized Egypt that later would play such an important role in the Middle East.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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